Customer Reviews

Mallrats

5 star:		(200)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Mallrats is actually my first Kevin Smith film. This is one of those films I wish I liked less than I do because it is pretty stupid, it inflicts a really doughy Ben Affleck on us, and it gets pretty campy and predictable in the end. It's not hard to see why critics hated it and theatre-goers didn't exactly fill the aisles to see it - the characters may be college age, but this really plays as a teen film, and the deserved R rating kept a good part of the target audience away.

After being dumped by their girlfriends, T.S. (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee) decide on a little mall therapy, and so the mallrat adventure begins. T.S. is rather annoying, actually, but Brodie is a great character - a flippant, constantly amusing wise-acre who is frighteningly intelligent in the most obscure of ways. His endless chatter would drive you crazy after a few hours, but, fortunately, you only have to spend an hour and a half with him in the movie. The girls, neither of whom is adequately developed as a character, are also at the mall - as are Jay and Silent Bob and other assorted oddballs. The guys are anxious to try and patch things up with their girls, but each one faces a major obstacle: for T.S., it is his girl's brutish father, while an almost unrecognizably doughy, unimpressive Ben Affleck is laying claim to the girl Brodie thinks is rightly his.

A boatload of hijinx and juvenile situations arise, sexual innuendoes dot the cinematic landscape, and a good time is had by all. There's nothing very original about the plot (apart from the dispensing of romantic advice from the lips of comics legend Stan Lee), but the film is continually entertaining throughout. It really comes down to Jason Lee; as far as I'm concerned, he carries the whole film on his back and almost single-handedly makes everything entertaining.

I remember seeing Mallrats when it was first released and thinking how good it was. It was probably a mix of the lingering Clerks honeymoon and the familiar setting of Eden Prairie, MN. But I've rewatched this film twice in the last week and it's slipped a couple of notches.
Here's why:

1. Mallrats is an exceedingly large production compared to Clerks. Think only about the different locations between the two films. Convenience/Video Store vs. 2 malls in 2 different states. The Mall in MN was somewhat of a ghost town during the filming period so they were able to customize the stores more than a typical mall (Carpet Munchers and Buy Me Toys). The grandure of the production seems to detract from the meat of the film. Whereas Clerks was carried by it's dialogue.

2. Budget was of little concern to Smith (who made Clerks for chump change) for this film. Seemingly unlimited funds facilitated a "kitchen sink" mentality. "We've got enough money to do this, this and this" As opposed to "This or that". So Mallrats is a little fat around the middle.

3. Acting - Be honest. After seeing this movie, did you think you'd ever see Jeremy London in another film? This guy couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. (Probably explains why he's on Seventh Heaven now.) Jason Lee is Jason Lee. Certainly not up for an Oscar, but convincing and charismatic. The rest of the cast is about average. I'm not suggesting we should expect top-notch acting here but at least make it natural.

I can't blame Kevin Smith for wanting to strike while the iron was hot here, but with a little more time and a little more focus, this could have been much better film. Smith may have been in a "This is my one big shot, so I'm gonna show 'em everything I got" mindset. Smith figured out the patience factor with Chasing Amy and honed his directing skills in Dogma.

The soundtrack to Mallrats saves experience for me. Anyone who includes Archers of Loaf deserves a break.

Seriously this is the best movie ever and even though everyone says that this is the worst of all the Jay and Silent Bob movies I think it is definatly the best one...

I don't care who says this movie bad. I don't care how many peopel think it sucks. I think it's awesome. By far the best Jay and Silent movie. I like it cause it's funny and there isn't too much swearing or annoying stuff. Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back is funny to but annoying cause Jay is the main character and as a result of that. There is way too much swearing. I like Jay and Bob but they make more better back up characters. Jason Less is great. Yeah some parts of this are dumb but I love it cause it's filmed in my home state. Minnesota. The land of the hot blondes. Anybody who is from Minnesota know what I"m talking about. If you want a funny movie that is original and has a good story. Buy this movie.

Title: Mallrats

Cast: Shannen Doherty ... Rene Mosier
Jeremy London ... T.S. Quint
Jason Lee ... Brodie Bruce
Claire Forlani ... Brandi Svenning
Ben Affleck ... Shannon Hamilton
Joey Lauren Adams ... Gwen Turner
Renée Humphrey ... Tricia Jones
Jason Mewes ... Jay
Ethan Suplee ... Willam Black
Stan Lee ... Himself
Kevin Smith ... Silent Bob

Director: Kevin Smith

Tagline: "They're not there to shop. They're not there to work. They're just there."

Plot Summary: Two best friends whose girlfriends dump them on the same day seek solace in wandering around the local mall. Once there, wild and whacky events ensue that give them a chance to set things right with their girlfriends before it's too late.

Review and Comments: Words cannot describe what happens in this movie, it's one of those "you had to be there" kind of things...that's why the plot summary won't do the story justice. And once you see it, you either buy into it and like what you see, or you're violently annoyed by the proceedings. I can fully understand both reactions, but I'm firmly on the side of enjoying this movie. Yes, it's absurd. A lot of the comedy is slapstick. Yes, it involves a slacker college-age guy taking his less-of-a-slacker college student friend to wander around the mall the day they both experience breakups. Yes, they get into a bunch of weird and quirky situations that are either funny or annoying, depending on your sense of humor. I laughed a lot.

The relationships are about as one-dimensional as you can get. I think there's too much weird humor going on here for me to get too involved with the characters. But I appreciate how much these guys love their girlfriends. I appreciate that Brodie (Jason Lee) can't admit how much he loves his ex girlfriend, even though everyone can see it. I appreciate that Brandi (Claire Forlani) can't admit how much she loves T.S. (Jeremy London) because she's too busy trying to be mad at him and justify her breakup to herself. It's sweet to watch at times, but not much more than that. If you want depth, look elsewhere.

The comedy is what saves this movie, which is why you have to find it funny, or the movie will just annoy the hell out of you. There are several gross-out jokes, including one that made me want to puke. The elevator sex scene and ensuing discussion between the characters was hilarious. There's a running joke about a game show that's filming on a stage in the mall that night, and how Jay and Silent Bob keep attempting to sabotage it. There are about a million more, but I won't spoil them. Suffice it to say that slapstick comedy pervades this movie, and if you don't like that, you won't enjoy the movie. The ending is corny and sweet, and the proceedings are largely painless. It's not my favorite Smith film, but it's nowhere near as bad as critics made it out to be.

The Bottom Line: Perfectly fitting my weird sense of humor.

Of the 5 View Askewniverse films directed by Kevin Smith (Silent Bob in all 5), this one is probably the worst. It doesn't have the sly social commentary of Clerks, the touching but romantic confusion of Chasing Amy, the sharp but worthwhile satire of Dogma, or the shameless but hilarious nostalgia of every film he's ever loved or made of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. But even Kevin Smith's worst film is still going to be a lot better than many films, especially of the gross-out comedy type (and Mallrats qualifies).

In many ways, this film is an ode to the 80s with a 90s brush. The mall has all the answers, according to Brodie, the comic-book loving (but socially inept) main character played by Jason Lee. He and his friend T.S. (one of the London boys) are beleagured by girl problems, or by their own problems dealing with girls. Having broken up with girlfriends played by Shannen Doherty and Claire Forlani respectively, they find refuge in the local mall, the hallmark of society's youth. Hijinks ensue (don't hijinks always ensue in a Kevin Smith film...?) among the misuses of chocolate cookies, the mysteries of those Magic Eye pictures, the horrors of a father gone insane, the joys provided by comic book stores, and the trials of trying to use the Force when you're not meant to. They meet a variety of characters, including a pompous sales rep played by a pre-fame Ben Affleck and, of course, local (every VA film starts in New Jersey) junkies Jay and Silent Bob, who provide the film's biggest laughs. Admittedly, if those characters didn't make their characteristic appearance, this film would be something worse than what it is. The film comes complete with references to many pop-culture loves of Mr. Smith, including a good deal of Star Wars props.

This is the second film of the VA series, and if you're a Smith fan, it's still worth owning. The film is funny and smart, despite it's clunkiness, especially in the parts with Jay and Bob - the comedy is high, and the laughs are real. It's not the best picture ever made, even by Kevin Smith, but it's a good flick for belly laughs if you need the comedy.

This movie basically takes MTV's Tom Green character - loud, obnoxious, and utterly clueless - and puts him in a Seinfeld skit. There are plenty of conversations about nothing, but unfortunately for the movie makers, it takes some modicum of cleverness to do a successful Seinfeld comedy. There's absolutely none here. It's just never ending babbling. Did I mention loud, obnoxious and clueless? That can't be repeated often enough in describing this thing, and really should be in all caps.

We're introduced to our main character, Brodie, as he kicks Shannen Doherty out of bed so he can play a video game. We're supposed to like him. He then proceeds to talk, nonstop, obnoxiously and utterly without wit, throughout the length of the movie. His sidekick T.S. is identical, except that he can't get a word in edgewise due to Brodie's obnoxious, interminable ranting.

There are some other characters that provide a welcome, though all-too-short break from this torture. Shannen Doherty has what amounts to little more than a cameo. She's really the only likable character in the thing. Joey Lauren Adams plays a comically (...) girl, and gets two or three very short scenes. Some guys named Jay and Silent Bob play a Wile E. Coyote skit every once in a while. But the relief is short and all too seldom - it's always right back to the "how fast and furiously can I recite my insipid lines" character of Brodie. There's a game show at the end - the film makers are hoping that you'll find it so amusing that people swear while on televeision that you'll keep laughing for the entire 30 minutes of it. It's really impossible to sit through. I had my DVD player all the way up to 100X fast forward during that part.

The trouble is, these characters are so unlikable that it's inconceivable they even had girlfriends in the first place. Therefore the plot is a waste of time. There's an abyssmal lack of wit throughout the rest of it; it's as tiresome as sitting through 30 standing ovations during a State of the Union address.

My advice: Avoid at all costs.

the reason why i say its his best is because look at the cover, the cover sweet. it looks tight,but anyways thats not why i like the movie. the movie is smart,funny,and has an important message,"the mall has it all".this movie takes place in the mall which makes it genious. i love all of kevin smith's movies and this is one of them.i love this move so freakin much!!!!!! if you havent seen this movie you have to watch this movie. youll laugh,youll cry,youll want to see it over and over and over. get this movie. dont just rent it buy it!!!!,you wont regret it.

this move kicks ass. it's one of the best movies ever created. kevin smith is a genius for making this.

What was Kevin Smith doing starring and directing in this mess. there's no plot or funny bits that makes Clerks and Dogma so hilarious .the cast is good and the the cameo by comic book drawer Stan Lee is terrific,but the movie is so stupid to follow,the plot stinks what plot there's only two slackers that hang at the mall and be stupid,this movie tries to be like Clerks and fails,Jason Lee and Jeremy London take over Randall and Dante's roles that Kevin Smith should have called MALLCLERKS.0 stars for this.watch Clerks or Dogma.